200 Columbia students seize campus bldg.

Demand creationDemand creationof an EthnicDemand creationof an EthnicStudies dep't More than 200 Columbia University students seized control of a campus building this weekend, demanding that the school create an Ethnic Studies Department. What began Thursday at 4 p.m. as a sit-in at Hamilton Hall -- the main building where classes are held -- evolved into a take-over over the facility by 9 p.m., according to Daniel Alarcon, spokesperson for the Committee on Ethnic Studies in the Core Curriculum. "It's a liberated building," he said. "We're going to hold it until negotiations are resolved." The students slept in the building Saturday night, Alarcon added. Chairs and desks from various floors of the building are being used to barricade the doors -- preventing administrators from entering. Negotiation meetings between a seven-member student team and administrators including two Columbia deans began Friday evening and continued through Sunday. "There hasn't been a solid promise to what the demands have been so far," Columbia senior Jamal Van Sluytman said. But Columbia spokesperson Fred Knubel said the university has committed a great deal of time and resources to creating programs that explore other cultures. "The university also has led in creating courses on multi-cultural issues and on the American cross-cultural experience," he said in a Columbia statement. In addition to the lock-in, three students are entering their third week of a hunger strike. They are living solely on a water-with-electrolyte diet. A tent has been set up in the middle of campus where the hunger strikers sleep at night, according to Van Sluytman. This is not the first forceful demonstration by Columbia students in recent weeks. Earlier last week, 22 students were arrested after they spent the night barricaded in the Low Library Rotunda -- the main administrative building on campus. According to Knubel, appropriate disciplinary measures will be taken against the demonstrating students. "It can be an outcome of no action to a complete disciplinary process which would mean censure or expulsion," he said. As a result of the disciplinary letters being sent to those arrested, students have taken the stance "if you're going to do it to one person, you're going to do it to all of us," Alarcon said. The 200 students who participated in the Low Library protest and 400 students participating in the Hamilton Hall take-over signed a petitions stating the university should discipline them. In February, students also staged a three-hour sit-in at Columbia College Dean Austin Quigley's office, refusing to leave until negotiation meetings were set. The meetings between administrators and students did not resolve the issue. According to Knubel, approximately 35 percent of the Columbia College student body consists of minorities and 15.3 percent of the Arts and Sciences faculty are also minorities.